South Florida Victims Struggle As Fema Denies Help

Bernadette Russell has spent hours on the phone navigating the Federal Emergency Management Agency's bureaucracy since Hurricane Katrina ripped off part of her roof. So far, nothing has worked.

Russell, 51, has no insurance, like many of her neighbors, and doesn't know how she will pay for repairs to her water-damaged home at the Everglades Mobile Home Park in Davie.

About 24 miles south, in Miami Gardens, retirees Louis and Polly Bobb searched their fixed budget for the $2,000 insurance deductible to fix their damaged roof. Louis Bobb, 81, said mold and mildew caused by water damage is affecting the health of his asthmatic wife, 76.

Throughout Broward and Miami-Dade counties, hundreds of Katrina's victims still struggle to repair homes the storm damaged two weeks ago. But as they try to recover, they are unable to look to FEMA because the beleaguered agency determined South Florida suffered insufficient damage to justify federal assistance to individuals.

Miami-Dade and Broward officials have asked FEMA to reverse its decision, noting the damages have affected hundreds of residents. Though a far cry from the damage Katrina inflicted on the Gulf Coast, the hurricane hit residents of some South Florida cities hard.

"I'm awfully sorry about the people at the Gulf Coast, but it happened here too and we are suffering," Russell said.

Local officials say the poor and uninsured suffered the greatest losses, particularly in Homestead, where widespread flooding damaged homes and agriculture.

In Miami-Dade, residents reported 416 incidents of damage, from destroyed roofs to flooded homes, mold and mildew. The county recorded 118 reports of flooding inside of homes.

"A lot of the people affected live from paycheck to paycheck," Martinez said.

Earlier this week, Florida emergency disaster officials pleaded with FEMA, arguing that damages to low-income families and farm workers were more extensive than previously estimated.

Craig Fugate, Florida's emergency management chief, wrote in a recent letter to FEMA Director Mike Brown that the hurricane's damage to south Miami-Dade, where the damages "fell disproportionately to individuals" substantiates requests for individual assistance there.

"Regardless of the population of a state or a county, impacts that fall disproportionately to the poor typically require the provision of federal disaster assistance," he wrote.

Fugate also wrote that because many of the damaged homes were not in the flood plain, many homeowners did not have flood insurance. Others could not afford it, he said.

Miami-Dade and Broward officials also filed appeals.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, said FEMA is making residents pay for the agency's past mistakes. She cited the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's reports last year that the agency distributed millions of dollars in Miami-Dade to pay fraudulent claims.

"They handed checks like candy during a presidential election year," she said.

FEMA officials could not be reached for comment despite attempts by phone.

"We have sympathy for the Gulf Coast victims and we are not trying to compare," she said. "But the damages have the same impact for affected families."

Richard S. Olson, chairman and professor in Florida International University's Political Science Department, said FEMA's caution is understandable.

"FEMA got burned last year and they couldn't afford to be burned again in front of Congress and the American people," Olson said.

But some residents say they think the federal government was not there to help them when they needed it most.

"I just think that's a shame," said John Kee of Lauderhill.

Kee, 34, said he's upset that FEMA won't give him help to fix part of his roof, which was torn down by the hurricane.

"I know there was a lot of fraud last year, but there's a lot of people who need help," he said.

FEMA officials told state authorities that 800 homes must be damaged statewide for Florida to qualify for individual assistance even though the agency previously granted that assistance after 100 homes suffered tornado damage.

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Kathy Sorenson said FEMA should help people regardless of the circumstances.

"If someone needs help they should get it, whether they are 20 families or 800 families," Sorenson said.